Hotline #43 - July 17, 1998

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the 1999 transportation funding bill on July 14. It was approved by the Transportation Subcommittee last week. It is the bill with $555 million for Amtrak. The Committee added language making clear that the "transit definition" for capital applies to the Amtrak appropriation, allowing it to go for maintenance of equipment and facilities. The committee also earmarked $5 million of high-speed rail funds for capital improvements for Amtrak's planned daily Los Angeles-Las Vegas train.

However, some bad items from the subcommittee survived and may be the target of Senate floor amendments. One requires the Amtrak Reform Council to identify Amtrak routes that are candidates for closure and to report to Congress annually on such recommendations. This arguably would end the Council's independence and impartiality, instead giving it a vested interest in those management decisions it promoted.

The other bad idea is requiring Amtrak to tell its customers the most up-to-date GAO measure of Amtrak's average subsidy per passenger. The GAO has shown it has an anti-Amtrak ax to grind. Also, no one is about to impose such a requirement on other transportation. Almost three-quarters of Amtrak passengers travel on trains whose average subsidy per passenger is below the systemwide average. Subsidy per passenger is really a measure of average trip length and not of economic efficiency. Recognizing that Chairman Shelby (R.-Ala.) is just trying to make Amtrak look bad, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R.-Tex.) may offer the floor amendment to strike this language.

The Senate bill will not go to the Senate floor, however, until the House passes its bill.

The first House step came yesterday morning, when the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Frank Wolf (R.-Va.), approved a 1999 transportation funding bill. It basically gave Amtrak full funding. Wolf's $609 million nominally is $12 million less than the Amtrak request of $621 million, but that $12 million was for the Manhattan Penn Station/Farley project, which was funded separately in the recent TEA-21 law. An Amtrak release praised Wolf and the Subcommittee for "keeping faith with the Congressional agreement to provide the necessary support to make Amtrak" operationally self-sufficient by 2002.

Rep. Sonny Callahan (R.-Ala.) had threatened to cut Wolf's Amtrak amount by $50 million, but no such amendment was offered yesterday.

The full House Appropriations Committee may take up the new bill on July 22.

Last week, the Senate Commerce Committee approved the nomination of William Clyburn to the vacant position on the three-slot Surface Transportation Board. He is a Democratic staffer in the Senate. The full Senate still needs to vote on his nomination.

Amtrak, Guilford, and the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority on July 10 formally entered into an agreement over running a Boston-Portland service. The agreement got some bad press because it specifies a top speed of 59 mph, consistent with the Surface Transportation Board's recent decision. However, the STB said the parties could negotiate higher speeds. Maine plans to use its TRA money to pay for higher speeds and, to that end, on July 22 will begin negotiations with Guilford.

Greyhound moved into the new intermodal terminal in Syracuse, N.Y., on July 15. Amtrak will follow in the fall.

Amtrak will run another San Diegan round trip on weekends between Los Angeles and San Diego, from July 25 through September 7, which is Labor Day.

As of July 1, VIA Rail trains in Canada no longer have conductors. The tasks performed by conductors will be divided between engineers and on-board service staff. VIA says it will save $17.5 million a year from this.